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Chai Shai Aur Hum
Last year I got invited to a group called Chai Shai Aur Hum, which is a private social club of 10 women in our neighboring towns that meets every month. The idea is to just “chit-chat”- and escape the daily drill of work, family and other obligations and treat each other, turn by turn. Chai Shai means Chai (tea) etc., as in Urdu we will take a noun and replace the first consonant with “Sh” to mean “etc.”; “Aur” is “and”, and “Hum” is “we”, so the concept is loosely: Togetherness through Chai.
Having been a corporate professional all my life, I initially disliked the idea of just “chit-chat”. Also, as a long-time activist and community leader, I was conditioned that when you make time to meet, there should be a purpose, a deeper cause or project that is the focus of the meeting. For example, as a chapter leader of another group: Together Women Rise (www.togetherwomenrise), which helps women and girls in the Global South, we discuss the country that is the grantee of the month, e.g., Cameroon for October, and how the project we are funding through our 500 US chapters helps those in need, and the impact it generates. Interfaith dialogue is another pet project of mine- I was the Muslim lead for the Bergen County Women’s Interfaith Initiative for 8 years before COVID disbanded our group, and the purpose was interfaith education and understanding.